1. Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to electric power generation and more particularly relates to generation of standby electric power.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many electric devices incorporate a standby mode of operation. Standby modes usually use less power than normal operation and sometimes use different voltages. For example, a computing device or an electronic appliance may store data in volatile memory, keep time, or monitor user input when in a low power state. The low power state may use less power than normal operation of the computing device or electronic appliance, and the memory, time, or user input circuits may use different voltages than the standard voltages for the computing device or electronic appliance.
Using the same power supply for operation in a standby mode is often inefficient. Most power supplies are designed to operate efficiently under power loads consistent with normal use, and operate inefficiently under lower power loads experienced during a standby mode. Further, power supplies that provide several voltages often convert one voltage to the other voltages. If each of the several voltages is not used in a standby mode, some power supplies continue to provide each of the voltages, which can also be inefficient.